DUWAMISH ALIVE! Habitat help along ‘A River for All’

October 21, 2017 6:59 pm
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 |   Environment | West Seattle news

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Pastoral, industrial, vital. Our Instagram video clip is the view of the Duwamish River from Terminal 107 Park, steps away from the kickoff event for today’s installment of the twice-yearly Duwamish Alive! work parties. As James Rasmussen had told the gathering of volunteers, this is “the last stretch of the old Duwamish River”:

Rasmussen spoke both as leader of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition and as a member of the Duwamish Tribe, whose longhouse is across West Marginal Way SW from T-107. “This place would not have been saved if not for my ancestors,” Rasmussen explained, recounting how the discovery of shell heaps – evidence of a long-ago Duwamish village – stopped work at the site years ago. While so much of the Duwamish River’s shore has been the focus of restoration, so much of the riverbed itself the subject of cleanup, this stretch, including mudflat Kellogg Island, remains “original habitat,” Rasmussen said. And now, the intent is to improve its health so it can serve as “A River for All”:

Rasmussen promised one of those buttons to City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who also spoke:

After a few speeches – in light rain – it was time for everyone to get to work:

Much of today’s work involved planting. Rasmussen urged volunteers to name their plants – “(they’re) not an inanimate object, they know you’re there” – and come back to visit them as they grow.

P.S. If you weren’t able to work at one of the Duwamish Alive! sites today – there are work parties in the area almost every weekend (often featured on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar) – and another long list of them on November 4th for Green Seattle Daysee that list here, including five locations in West Seattle (and easy RSVP links for each).

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